Category: Community

Nuffnang Australia this week launched their inaugural conference and meetup for fashion bloggers, Nuffnang Fashionopolis, with a list of high profile speakers including Phoebe Montague, Patty Huntington, Philip Boon and Jenny Bannister. The program includes extensive networking opportunities and an education component, and is the first industry event of its kind in Australia.

Nuffnang Fashionopolis, to be held on Saturday 12 May at Thousand Pound Bend, will be hosted by one of Melbourne’s premier fashion bloggers, Phoebe Montague, better known to the fashion community as Lady Melbourne.
The industry event will also play host to Fashion Torque, Australia’s only live fashion chat show established by Philip Boon and Jenny Bannister in 2010, at which industry stalwarts Patty Huntington and Sarah Gale will be guests.

The Nuffnang Fashionopolis schedule will educate up and coming, and established, fashion bloggers on the best ways to brand blogs to ensure cut through in a crowded space, how to use social media to best advantage and the importance of great photography and original content. Further learning opportunities will be provided through a panel session featuring Montague, David Krupp from Nuffnang and others.
Part conference and part networking event, Nuffnang Fashionopolis will give bloggers a chance to hear from the professionals, as well as give them the chance to speak personally with the best in the business.

‘The opportunities to meet and speak with these icons of the Australian fashion industry makes this a must attend event for anyone in fashion blogging’ David Krupp, Country Manager of Nuffnang Australia, said.

Montague, whose blog is one of the success stories of Australian fashion blogging, is thrilled to be hosting the inaugural event, ‘I’ve always been about community with my blogging exploits whether it’s organising dinners and coffee for bloggers, through to teaching how to blog at the CAE here in Melbourne. I’ve not been in a position to gather bloggers from all over Australia together until now however so I’m brimming with excitement for what Nuffnang Fashionopolis will provide on the day.’
Tickets to Nuffnang Fashionopolis, presented by Sunglass Hut Inner Circle, are now available through nuffnangfashionopolis.com.au.

Find us on Facebook: /NuffnangAustralia and Twitter: @nuffnangau Hashtag: #NNF2012

For further information or interviews, please contact:
Sarah Kempson sarah@frankmedia.com.au or call her on (03) 8517 2006

Pinterest is certainly the new black at the moment and is growing rapidly amongst brands.

We recently came across one of the first Pinterest based campaigns out of Israel by Kotex.

They wanted to do something for their ‘Women’s Inspiration Day’ and identified 50 influential women on Pinterest and sent them an individualised gift based on the content of their pin boards.

From the 50 gifts that were sent out, almost 100% posted about their gift, creating 2284 interactions and 694,853 impressions.

Yesterday I saw and appreciated this crochet wrapped around a tree in Greville Street. More enlightened people than me (thanks Steph) told me this is an example of yarn bombing.

My appreciation came from how the crochet made me re-evaluate an everyday object and reinforced a sense of an active local community in Greville Street.

Also yesterday the local council had a conniption and decided to ban all chalk street stencils plus threaten to fine shop/restaurant owners if they seek to beautify or ‘engage’ passersby. Reported

 in the Stonnington Leader  check out the comments. I think they are mildly disturbing….could they come from council  spokespeople?

That any attempt by a local community, such as Greville Street, which has built a draw-card reputation for being irreverent and eclectic should be penalised for the very reason that has attracted visitors and shoppers for years seems nonsensical.

As businesses increasingly strive to differentiate themselves and become more ‘social’ it occurs to me that local councils have a front foot responsibility to sensitively manage the very essence of neighbourhood communities. Stonnington Council might consider this.

One of the key challenges for businesses in becoming more social is that they are more often than not socially inept. This stems from never having the need to engage, add value, differentiate or just be different. As high street retail continues to be challenged so the need to give people a reason to get out and about to seek originality becomes more vital

One of the ‘neighbourhoods’ on the newly launched Chapel Street site is “Greville Village.” Part of the description says

Greville Village is returning to its heyday; truly coming alive during the golden hours of the afternoon. That’s not to say that a refreshing cider or glass of vino isn’t close at hand when the sun goes down. Though intimate in size, the area will see you effortlessly whiling away the hours. Amid a tight-knit hub of boutiques, cafes and bars is a place to wander.

“Returning to its heyday” is possibly ambitious as the Station Hotel soon closes to become more essential units and of course the lifeblood of individualism potentially attracts a fine.

Once upon a time Greville Street even had a Sunday market.

By the way the yarn bomb has yet to be fined.  Check out this guy out too. He plants pot plants in pot holes.

I wonder how the council would cope if random acts of character were to appear?

Social media has always been about two way conversations. For too long, companies have been treating their social media channels like how they treat mass communciations channels – shouting advertising messages at the customer: Buy this! Like us! Follow us! Tell your friends!

Brands have jumped onto social and grabbed at whatever popular tools they can – setting up a Facebook page, Twitter account and so on and believing that social is a cheap and easy way to win customers’ attention and wallets. But getting a return on investment is just that – it needs investment. Without the right resources in place to cope with the demands of being on social platforms, brands risk putting off a huge portion of customers, both existing and potential ones.

Social media expected to lead customer service in the future

A study by Conversocial of 513 respondents put a harsh spotlight on the lack of customer service on social media sites… and the painful consequences.

78% believe that social media platforms will soon entirely replace other means of customer service altogether.

Note that within the study, a slight majority (50.7%) of respondents currently use social media to communicate with brands. So although not all consumers are using social media to communicate with brands, a large majority of them still believe that social media customer service is the way to go. And it’s no surprise, really, because by 2017 the Millennial generation (those born between 1981 and 2000) will have more buying power than any other generation. As early social media adopters, they often understand social better than the brands trying to reach them. They are making their own rules of commerce and it is time for brands to catch up with their expectations, or suffer.

The price of ignoring your customers

If personally ignored by companies on social media sites, 45% of respondents said they’d feel anger, and 27.1% said they would stop doing business with the company altogether. Ouch.

If you thought that was painful – the next statistic is even scarier.

If they went onto a company’s social media site and saw that other people’s complaints were left unanswered, 88.3% said they’d be less likely to do business with that company in the future. 

Keeping in mind that the respondents were split about half-half with regard to having communicated with brands on social media sites, it shows that even people who don’t communicate with brands are still silently watching and judging when brands fail to respond to other customers. Ultimately, the conversations that a brand has with its customers is a public social space represent the brand – and if these conversations fail to impress, it’s a big hit to purchase intent.

Social customer service needs investment

Social customer service is impossible to ignore and will only become more important in the future as Millennials and digital natives become the main spenders. Today’s consumers’ opinions are no longer within their own bubble of experience with the company, but are influenced by the experiences of others.

Companies, especially bigger ones, may say that it is too hard to keep up with the stream of questions and complaints on their social channels.

The first step is to have a community manager who listens and responds to customers quickly and appropriately on social channels. However, this also has its limitations – a community manager may not know all the ins and outs of a company’s processes. For example, if a customer asks a very specific question on Facebook, only certain employees may have the right answers.

Hence, it’s best when social isn’t the responsibility of a single department or person – it should touch every aspect of the company and all employees should be involved in providing the help and answers that customers are demanding on social channels (being a social business).

Customers will expect attention and service from a company, regardless of whether they’ve phoned the customer service centre, tweeted them, or asked a question on Facebook. Only 4% of CMOs are currently leveraging social media to provide faster handling and customer care. It’s time for companies to recognise the influence that social media has over the new breed of consumer, and invest the appropriate resources into maintaining these channels for customer service, and solidify their reputation online for the long term.

1.“Social” is something you are, not something you do

If your company culture doesn’t focus on building relationships within the business and your customers, then chances are that you won’t use social media to do it either. The “media” doesn’t dictate how social a company is or isn’t, it simply enhances its ability to be a social business.

2. You cannot always effectively outsource community management to an agency

Community management within your social business strategy is vital…being there when customers ask you for help, participating in conversations. None of this can be effectively outsourced, or certainly not unless your agency partner embeds a team with you for a few months and you are both committed to a long term program.

3. A blog is just a blog

Publishing  marketing content is just that, regardless of the publishing platform. Just because you publish marketing content on a blog doesn’t mean it magically morphs into something “authentic” that “engaged customers” will spread through “word of mouth.”

4. Marketing on social media channels doesn’t make a social business

You can’t simply use social media channels to be ‘social’. It is just marketing on social media channels. Just as publishing marketing content on a blog doesn’t make marketing content any less manufactured and biased. To get it right, you need to build a real social media/business strategy– one that is actually social from the core.

5. Transparency isn’t just a word. If you don’t intend to practice it, don’t preach it

Don’t endeavour to embark on a ‘transparent’ social business journey if you aren’t going to do just that. Treat your customers with respect and treat your program on foundations of integrity and professional pride.

6. It’s not all about the tools

Because social is something you are, not something you do, most organisations cannot succeed in the social space by changing what they do and not who they are. “Social” speaks at least as much to your company’s DNA as it does to its business practices. If you don’t really care about your customers, social media won’t magically transform you into someone who does.

7. People are more important than technology. Hire people who care about other people

It doesn’t matter how much Twitter and Facebook you add to your company’s communications or how many awesome monitoring dashboards. Start with your people, not your tools. They are what makes social either work or fail.

8. Listen listen listen

Companies are spending a good deal of their time (and budgets) focusing on producing content, blog posts, social media press releases, tweets, updates, events, and looking to “content strategy” rather than thinking about their listening strategy. Listen to your customers. Listen to your competitors’ customers. Use social technologies to learn how to better serve your customers and become a better company, and you’ll be good to go. Pushing content all day long and measuring likes and impressions won’t get you very far.

I’ve been a fan of collaborative consumption for a long time and have watched the trend catch on over the past years.
Last week I’ve come across Lucky Ant, a new and exciting website which brings the community together to help local businesses.

The service basically helps local businesses to call on the support of their consumers to make their business better. Lucky Ant posts projects in your neighborhood that require attention and funding. When you see a project you like, you can chip in to make it happen. If enough money has been collected, the project goes ahead. Otherwise, the money is refunded.

In return for your support, the business offers rewards and perks like free stuff, VIP treatment and other nice things.

Check out the video below to find out how it works and let me know what you think:

I think this is collaborative consumption at its best and has the potential to strengthen local businesses which is very important for a strong and healthy economy. Big chains and capitalism are so yesterday and the recent supermarket war between Coles and Woolworths just demonstrates how bad big chains can be.

The suppliers to big chains are vulnerable as never before, often forced to sell their produce dirt cheap or go out of business. How this builds a strong economy I really don’t know but it is common practice.

That is why I welcome Lucky Ant and other communities such as Occupy Christmas and Craft Victoria which focus on buying local products for a fair price.

Needless to say, I am eagerly waiting for Lucky Ant to be rolled out in Australia and hit some of my local shops!

http://www.intersectionconsulting.com/blog/

Well here we go. It’s 2012 and if the Mayans are right then we have 12 months to get this social-thing right.

2011 saw the initial desperate desire from brands to be liked or followed and so i thought that a great place to start getting it right is to differentiate between connection and advocacy.

It makes sense to me that as ‘Social ROI’ falls under the spotlight the easiest and most convenient demonstrations of ‘return’ are likes and followers.

A number of times we’ve been asked by marketing people to grow their likes to x,000 with incentivised campaigns so they can demonstrate to their CEOs how well the social campaign is going.  We generally resist such requests and point out that buying friends is not the way forward.

Imagine you incentivise/invite thousands of people to a party, none of which you’ve previously met. You have them all in a room and you call your CEO and say ‘guess what? we have 8,000 people in a room’…how clever am I? After a short while in the absence of any drinks, food or any real collective reason to be there people start to leave and look for the next incentivised party.

This is pretty much what’s happening in the early stages of brands’ social plays.

This excellent chart from Mark Smicklas’ blog nicely captures the scenario where the vast majority of brands are happy to rest on the measure of low- business value connections

Think of your own friends and why they’re friends. You generally add value to each others’ lives based upon simply knowing them.

So if you want to shift from low value gross connections to massively high value brand advocates there are a couple of common sense, naturally social, steps to take.

1. Invest time and money in better understanding what your brand means to them, how you can add value, what their online behaviour might be and begin to identify the influencers.

2. Explore pilot projects that involve and engage the influencers which will in turn (given time) generate positive advocacy and build a true community bound together by a common bond….your brand.

The fundamental challenge/barrier for most brands is that they are socially inept. Their ability to share, talk, answer, engage, have a personality, add value or simply give something for free with no obligations flies in the face of the traditional ‘take take take’ convention.

First mover advantage is there to be had in 95% brand categories so please don’t rest on your laurels, become truly social.

So where’s your brand at?

What exactly is the difference between a Social Business Manager and a Community Manager?

Community Manager – a community manager is responsible for managing a specific social media community (or number of communities). A community manager has to listen to all user responses, provide responses and generally promote the companies brand initiatives.
Community Management is a hands on roll that involves getting very much involved in the social media and networking sites on a daily basis, searching these sites and looking for your company/ brand mentions in the overall aim of providing a positive social media experience for your users.

Social Business Manager – a social business manager is responsible for the overall social media marketing activities for any particular business / organisation.
This is more a strategic role and defines particular social marketing strategies the company wishes to pursue. With this comes monitoring the results and measuring a ROI.

Many larger companies now have staff responsible for their social business & community management, however more often than not they assign existing, inexperienced staff with little or no time to successfully embrace the additional work load.

If you are looking for an outsourced solution from an experienced team in Social Business Management or Community Management, contact us.

This Friday I’m very much looking forward to presenting at the Monash University Marketing Connections Business Breakfast hosted at Zinc , Federation Square. The topic is Implementing and Measuring Social Media.

Apparently the normal turn out for this twice yearly event is about 90 and for this session we have a sell-out of 165 people which is fantastic and testament to the insatiable thirst for better understanding the social media opportunity.

My co-presenters are Andrew Bidese, the Digital Strategy Leader at GE Money and Charlie Wood the Vice President, Asia Pacific, of Radian6.

According to a recent KPMG study nearly half of Australian businesses have no presence in the social space despite the Australian population using social network sites for approximately 5 hours per month which is 70% more than the Asia Pacific region and more than the global average. So why the disconnect, I ask?

I’m particularly looking forward to trying to dispel any perceived barriers such as Internal Culture, defining Return on Investment and that hoary old question “What if someone says something negative about us?”

I’ll be leaving people with the thought that the social media bus is rolling with their consumers on board and asking who have you got at the wheel? We’re doing our bit by offering attendees a free assessment to help put them firmly in the driver’s seat.

I’ll post my charts as a slide share after the event. Please feel free to share and comment.

Sunday saw Melbourne’s first ‘The Sunday Age City2Sea’ 14km running event. 13,000 registrants showed at the NGV for kick-off at 9am. With a prompt start, we were off…

Okay so I didn’t quite keep up with the female leader (who managed to finish in 49:56mins) and a few pit stops were needed, but an 1 ½ later I was done! Conditions was near perfect and the best part for me was the post run festivities…

Movember were the main beneficiaries and was great to join their MO Tent afterwards for some nourishing food and beverages.

Congrats to those who participated and thanks to those who have donated towards the Movember cause.

Well this is definitely a unique one! Who would have ever thought a smartphone app could be the answer to those who are out and about and ‘desperate’ for a bathroom. Soon this will be made possible in the U.S via ‘CLOO’ (Community + Loo) which will connect those in urgent need of a toilet with those in the community that are willing to share one!

CLOO is a community of registered host members who are willing to share their bathrooms in exchange for a small fee. After downloading the CLOO app, those in need of a bathroom will be able to use it to see the registered hosts nearby. Along with basic details, the app will also indicate whether those hosts share any social networking friends in common with the user, as well as the host’s community rating and the price of their toilet. Users can then send a request to see if the host is home; if they are, the user is then invited to use the host’s toilet and payment is deposited into the host’s account. Afterwards, ratings for each party can be submitted through CLOO.

Not sure if this is something I would partake in, but heck when you gotta go you gotta go!

Last month we ran another successful FRANkademy session – thank you to all who attended! This time we focused more on how to use the hero tools of Twitter and Facebook, including an introduction to the new Facebook changes. Our social business case study featured Martell Home Builders – a great example of a small company using the new social and online tools to shape customer experiences and raise profits.

For those who missed it, here are the slides from our presentation.

Interested in attending FRANkademy? Let us know!

Movember kicked off with a bang last night at the Melbourne Launch event held at Blue Diamond

It was an opportunity for everyone to see a glimpse into this year’s campaign, which is all about the country gentleman. Here’s a sneak peak into this year’s TVC series…

A great night was had by all and everyone received a gift bag full of all sorts of goodies thanks to Movember sponsors for 2011. Everyone also left with a visual memento thanks to nib who sponsored a photo booth, nice touch!

We are looking forward to a fantastic campaign this year. For those who would like to support our FRANk team, thanks in advance.

Today’s business climate is harsh and businesses have to find new and unique ways to attract and retain customers. It is the only way to ensure survival and growth in times where globalisation, financial crisis, more customers, heavy competition, new technologies and distribution methods push many businesses to its limits.

The customer of today is a lot more sophisticated with higher expectations than ever before. In its quest for better products and services for less money, today’s customer creates a very competitive business environment which forces businesses to operate different.

Some business rise to the challenge and come up with the most unique, quirky, helpful and innovative ways to provide a competitive edge. Check this out:

Flash mob on demand at the Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort in Florida

via PSFK

Ever wanted a flash mob for your birthday celebration or to help you propose? Well just head to Florida’s Marco Island Marriott Beach Resort and they can help you arrange a flash mob for any occasion. The service is described as “the gift for someone who has everything” and also comes with a video which captures the surprise moment and the flash mob.

I think it is a really cool idea and I would love to get a flash mob for my next birthday. Fingers crossed this service will also hit the Australian shores soon… (via PSFK)

via brandflakesforbreakfast.com

Another brand offering a bit more than the competition is outdoor gear and clothing brand Patagonia. The company has teamed up with eBay to create a used Patagonia clothing marketplace called Common Threads Initiative.  Under the motto “buy less buy quality”  Patagonia encourages its customers to buy less and to recycle its clothes by selling them via eBay to customers who otherwise cannot afford the clothes.

via http://www.aurorafashions.com/

 

 

Ikea: Go happy to bed app

 

via PSFK

Ikea has developed an interactive app which allows you to log in with your Facebook account. The app takes data from Facebook, asks about your living situation and then customizes a bespoke 3D bedroom fitted with clickable IKEA items. Each bedroom design is personal and tailored to the smallest details, such a s photos from the user’s Facebook album hanging on the walls or in frames. (via PSFK)

 

 

Tesco’s virtual store in Korea’s subway

Tesco has put QR codes to clever use in its virtual store in Korea on the outside of subway trains. It helps time poor customers order the items they need on the fly by simply taking a photo of the QR code of the item. It certainly helps avoid the crowded stores and also Tesco did not need to buy an expensive brick and mortar store (via http://adsoftheworld.com)

 

via ads of the world

 

1. Do not SPAM
Nobody likes to be bombarded with spam so keep your communications relevant.

2. Listen
Listen to your audience and learn from them. Your community is a great source of inspiration and ideas but also provides valuable feedback.

3. Respect
Treat all communications and interactions with respect and be sensible about sharing information.

4: Know your tools
Not all social networks are the same so don’t treat Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or whatever you are using the same. Each tool should have its own role.

5. Tone
Tone is very important so make sure you use a helpful and approachable tone in all communications. Keep it conversational because nobody nobody likes a smart ass who uses lingo nobody understands.

6. Provide Value
Adding value to your community should be the main part of your job description. Always ask yourself how you can add value to a conversation before you post anything.

7. Share
If you got some good information, advice, knowledge, etc. share it with your community. Sharing fuels your conversation.

8. Respond
It is extremely important to respond to all comments, questions, etc. that you receive. Even if you don’t agree with some of the statements, you have to at least thank the author for the contribution.

9. Flexibility
Online conversations are fast paced and you need to be quick in your response. This is not a 9-5 job and the dynamic and reactions online cannot be predicted.

10. Be patient
No online community is built over night so be creative, innovative and persevere.

via socialblabla
Image source: www.oneforty.com

The Australian Law Reform Commission has proposed streamlining classifications across film, television, computer games and online content.

The proposed changes include the introduction of a PG 8+ and T 13 + (Teen) rating in addition to the current children ratings of C (children) and G (general).

The proposed new framework envisages:

• a greater role for industry in classifying content—allowing government regulators to focus on the content that generates the most community concern, and ensure access to adult content is properly restricted;
• content will be classified using the same categories, guidelines and markings whether viewed on television, at the cinema, on DVD or online;
• changes to classification categories, with age references—PG 8+ and T 13+ (Teen)—to help parents choose content for their children; and
• the Commonwealth taking on full responsibility for administering and enforcing the new scheme.

Currently there are different classification codes across different media. In TV Tonight‘s recent Audience Inventory, readers voted that having TV classifications match Film classifications was an Important industry issue.

The commission believes the use of age references will provide a better guide for parents to in assessing content for children.

Source: The Age/TV Tonight